


as long as there is laughter

by MoonCacti



Category: The Prom - Sklar/Beguelin/Martin
Genre: Alternate Universe, F/F, Friends With Benefits, Friends to Lovers, Sort Of, they're dumb & in denial
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-08-15
Updated: 2019-09-10
Packaged: 2020-08-10 02:30:22
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 7,399
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20127889
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/MoonCacti/pseuds/MoonCacti
Summary: best friend(noun)a person you can trust with your whole life. someone you have fun with, who you trust and confide; the first person you call when you get good or bad news. someone who has seen the best and worst of you and still will be there whenever you need them.





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> very vaguely, a FRIENDS au

“Hypothetically asking,” Alyssa says as she ungracefully drops down next to Emma on the couch at the coffeehouse, “would you marry me?”

Emma chokes on the sip of coffee she had just taken and it takes a moment for her to recover, “would you buy me dinner or something first?”

Alyssa huffs in answer; she’s crossing her arms and pouting slightly as she stares straight ahead with a frown and Emma thinks she looks too much like an annoyed puppy to be taken seriously.

“I was just on the phone with my mom,” she says and Emma nods slowly.

“Ah, that explains it,” Emma relaxes back in the couch and tells her heart to stop racing. “You want to marry me to piss her off enough that she’ll never speak to you again.”

“What, no,” Alyssa shakes her head and looks to Emma, a crease between her brows. “We were in the phone just now and she was being her usual self and telling me that if I don’t find someone soon and settle down and get married, then I’ll die alone and old and alone. Not with those exact words, but you get the gist of it,” she breathes in slowly to try and calm herself down and then takes Emma’s mug from her hands, grimacing as soon as she takes a sip. “Is this black coffee?”

“Yes, it is,” Emma takes her mug back and sips the coffee, exaggeratedly sighing in delight just to annoy Alyssa. “Thanks, I bought it for myself.”

“Gross,” Alyssa shudders dramatically. “I’m not going to die alone, right?” She sounds uncertain and Emma doesn't know if it's a serious question or not so she doesn't say anything. "I mean, I'm just twenty-five and I was in a serious relationship last year. The way she talks makes me feel like I'm an old lady on her death bed whose biggest regret is that she never got kids and now there's no one to be there for her when she dies."

Emma's lip twitches in amusement as she watches Alyssa’s brow furrow in concentration as she probably pictures it in her head.

“That’s… a very specific scenario,” Emma says, hiding her smirk behind her mug as she takes another sip of her coffee.

Alyssa sighs and purses her lips, looking down and noticing the muffin sitting on a plate on the coffee table. Her eyes flicker from Emma to the muffin and then back to Emma before she decides to pick it up anyway and takes a large bite of it.

“So you’ll do it?” She asks with her mouth full.

“Do what?”

“Marry me, Emma,” Emma’s heart skips a beat at the question but that’s understandable given the fact that someone has just proposed to her; it’s not because it’s Alyssa.

Emma opens and closes her mouth a couple of times before she can decide on how to answer that; why was she even considering saying yes? “Uh, like… right now?”

“Not right this second, no,” Alyssa takes another bite of the muffin and stares thoughtfully at Emma as she chews. “I meant it more like if we’re both single by the time we’re forty then we marry each other,” she explains as nonchalantly as she can when she’s done swallowing.

“Oh. Right. Maybe lead with that next time?” Alyssa nods but still looks like she’s waiting for an answer and Emma sighs a little as she puts her mug down on the coffee table. “So, I’m your backup plan then?” She stares at Alyssa with an arched eyebrow and an unreadable look in her eyes.

“Kind of?” Alyssa shrugs.

“Did everyone else say no?”

"You're the first person I'm asking," Alyssa says, polishing off the rest of the muffin in a single bite.

“Really?” Emma is taken aback because that's certainly not the answer she was expecting. “Why?”

“Well,” Alyssa holds one finger up for Emma to see. “You’re my best friend, why wouldn’t you want to spend the rest of your life with me? Remember that time at the beach when you peed on me? That’s how good friends we are.”

Emma winces and covers her face with a hand, “we promised to never talk about it. Ever!”

Alyssa ignores Emma and holds up a second finger, “we’re both gay; so that would make sense.” A third finger is held up, “and besides, I can’t ask Shelby because she and Kaylee are each other’s back up. I’m not even going to mention Nick, so that leaves Kevin; he’s sweet, but I don’t know how it would work between us since I’m a lesbian and he’s a guy. You were my only option, actually,” she finishes, lowering her hand and staring expectantly at Emma.

“I’m oddly flattered,” Emma deadpans and Alyssa huffs in mock annoyance.

“Is that a yes?”

Emma nods slowly and then shakes her head, “wait, why do you assume I’m gonna be single when I’m forty?”

“Emma,” Alyssa says slowly. It’s the tone of voice that implies that Emma should stop and give her a direct answer or suffer the consequences; it makes Emma want to laugh, but she doesn’t, because she feels like Alyssa is maybe just a little more serious than she had initially thought. 

“Yes, Alyssa,” Emma says with resignation and only a bit of amusement plus something else she refuses to acknowledge, “if we’re both single and desperate by the age of forty then we can marry each other so we don’t die alone," she finishes her sentence with a good-naturedly roll of her eyes and picks her mug back up to finish her almost cold coffee now.

“Yes!” Alyssa pumps a fist up and bounces a little on the couch’s cushions; it causes Emma to smile involuntarily at her. “You’re the best, Em,” she says it with soft eyes and Emma’s heart flutters a little, maybe she shouldn’t have had that second coffee in an empty stomach. “I’m gonna get a coffee too,” Alyssa nods in the direction of the counter where Angie is chit-chatting with a patron and gets up, “do you want anything?”

“A muffin?”

“I can do that for you,” and with a wink, she's gone.

“So, Kaylee and Shelby?” Emma asks when Alyssa passes her a plate with the muffin she had asked for before sitting down beside her again. “Thanks. Is it weird that I can see that happening?”

“I can see it, too,” Alyssa nods, taking a sip of her own overly sweet, probably extra caramel, coffee. “It kind of makes sense. And it’s better than Kaylee getting back with Nick; that’s for sure.”

Emma grimaces, briefly remembering the mess that had been.

“I kind of always thought that Kevin and Shelby had a thing for each other and were just too dumb to realize.”

“That too,” Alyssa nods, “but who knows.”

“Do you ever think about the fact that is the middle of the afternoon and we're here just like, gossiping about our friends' loves life while they’re at work?”

Alyssa laughs at that, “it’s the reason why we made sure that our days off would match.”

“That _and_ we wanted a few hours break from the straight people.”

Alyssa shakes her head but she’s smiling, “are you going to play something today?” She’s looking in the direction of the makeshift stage under the windows near the entrance of the coffeehouse where there’s a microphone in front of a stool and a guitar on a stand. It was there for anyone that would like to play and Alyssa occasionally would bully Emma into doing it, because she wouldn’t otherwise and because Alyssa liked it when she sang.

Emma had an incredible voice and was talented enough that she could have made a career out of it if she had wanted to.

“If I feel like it. Later though,” Emma shrugs noncommittally and Alyssa knows that mean she’ll probably try and come up with an excuse not to do it.

“Now, please?”

_“Alyssa.”_

_“Emma.”_

“No.”

A beat.

Emma takes a bite of her muffin, looking anywhere but at Alyssa’s face to avoid seeing her pout.

“But I like it when you play the guitar,” she says pitifully and watches as Emma’s resolve slowly crumble; now she only has to wait for a moment.

“_Fine,” _Emma sighs, caving in after a second or two.

Alyssa smiles smugly as Emma shoves the last bite of the muffin into her mouth and gets up from the couch. She makes her way to the stage slowly; with a last grimace in Alyssa’s direction, she’s sitting down on the stool and adjusting the microphone a little before picking up the guitar from the stand.

Alyssa gives her a thumbs-up with an encouraging smile; Emma ignores what it does to her heart.

She strums a few chords before leaning forward a little to speak on the microphone. “This song is called ‘Alyssa is coercing me into playing again,’ I hope y’all enjoy it,” the few customers scattered around the coffeehouse applaud weekly but Emma doesn’t hold it against them; it is three pm on a Thursday after all.

Angie whistles from behind the counter.

“_Alyssa,” _Emma sings in time with the melody, her voice slightly hoarse. It doesn’t do anything to Alyssa. Nope, not at all. “_No, it’s not the Mona Lisa,” _the melody picks up slightly, “_I couldn’t think of any other rhyme, call the cops, that’s my crime. I was going to say that your hair is soft, like a cloud, but the catchword is not allowed.”_

Alyssa bursts into genuine laughter at that, head thrown back and all. It makes Emma feel proud that’s she’s the one that caused her to laugh like that and she forgets what she had come up with for the next verse.


	2. Chapter 2

"Guess what?" Nick asks dropping down next to Kevin and Emma on the couch at the coffeehouse. He is almost vibrating with energy, a too-big smile on his face.

Instinctively, Kevin mirrors Nick’s smile. “What?”

“Melissa said yes.” He jumps up a little on the couch cushions. “I proposed last night and she said yes!”

Kevin’s eyes light up and he pulls Nick in a sideways hug. “Dude, nice!”

“Yeah, Nick. Congratulations.” Emma leans a bit over Kevin to high five Nick, a big smile on her face too. “Now pay up,” she says smirking at Kevin as she straightens up.

“Really?” Kevin scowls, turning from Nick to Emma. “You couldn’t have waited until we were home?”

“Nope.”

Kevin pouts but grudgingly, he picks up a wrinkled twenty-dollar bill from his pocket and deposits it on Emma’s waiting hand.

“You were betting on whether I would propose or not?” Nick shakes his head, sounding a little annoyed. Kevin simply shrugs as Emma pockets her money.

“When,” Emma says.

“What?”

“We were betting on _when _you were going to propose,” she elaborates and Kevin nods.

“Yeah, and if you could’ve waited just another month I’d have won.” 

Nick rolls his eyes, but then he is smiling again, apparently too happy to be bothered by his friends’ clownery. “I was going to wait, actually. I had a plan and everything but then last night we were having dinner and talking and it was nice- you know. I just asked it and she said yes. She said yes!” He is so excited that is kind of contagious.

"We're happy for you, Nick," Emma tells him sincerely. If it's possible, his smile widens a little more as he looks at her over Kevin's head.

“Thanks, Emma.”

Kevin jumps up on the couch, clapping his hands together suddenly and startling them.

“You’re gonna be a married man. _Dude!” _And then he’s jumping on Nick and attacking his perfectly combed hair with both hands.

“_No!”_

Nick’s attempts to defend himself are more or less useless as Kevin somehow manages to make him a disheveled mess.

Emma rolls her eyes, unlocking her phone to find something to pass the time as she pretends that she doesn’t know them.

One of them yelps and Emma sighs.

“Not to be a party pooper,” Emma says a while later when Nick and Kevin have mostly stopped behaving like children. “But have you told Kaylee yet?”

Nick’s face falls and he slumps back on the couch. “You two were the first ones to know, actually.”

Kevin winces, “how do you think she’ll react?”

Nick thinks for a moment before sitting up a bit and putting on a defiant face. “It’s gonna be fine,” he says with fake confidence. “We broke up years ago and we still managed to stay friends. Besides, she’s dating that guy too, the lawyer. Jack? James?”

“You _know _it’s Jake and they broke up like, almost a month ago.”

“Oh yeah,” Kevin slaps his own forehead. “I knew I had forgotten to tell you something.”

The bell at the door jingles before Nick can say anything and he pales a little when he looks over his shoulder at the entrance.

“Stop talking, now,” he whisper-yells, hurriedly turning to look at Emma and Kevin with wide eyes. “They’re coming.”

“Who is-” Emma doesn’t need to finish her question because the next second Alyssa is already pushing at her shoulders as she sits down next to Emma on the arm of the couch, out of the corner of her eyes she can see Kaylee and Shelby squeezing together in the armchair.

“What you guys talking about?” Shelby asks, narrowing her eyes when she notices Emma and Nick exchange a look.

“Nothing,” Nick says too quick at the same time Emma blurts out “the state of the country’s economy.”

“But I thought we were talking about Nick’s wedding?” Kevin sounds genuinely confused as he asks it, turning from Emma to Nick and back again.

Emma covers her face with a hand. Nick punches him in the arm.

“Hey, _ouch.”_

“You getting married?” Kaylee asks making everyone turn to her and hold their breath as they wait for what she’ll say next.

Nick clears his throat awkwardly, “um, yes?” He looks at Kevin for moral support but all he gets is a scowl. “I… erm, I proposed last night and Melissa said yes,” he smiles weekly. “So yeah.”

“Well,” Kaylee says nodding, “congratulations, Nick. I’m happy for you.” Her smile looks mostly sincere and everyone relaxes a little.

Shelby smirks as she wraps an arm around Kaylee protectively. “Yeah, Nick, we all know how much you like a wedding. Just make sure she’s not a lesbian this time.”

Kaylee snickers while Kevin and Alyssa burst into laughter and Emma rolls her eyes; she shifts a little, leaning into Alyssa and settling more comfortably against her side. “I have a question.”

Nick sits up a bit and looks at Emma, ignoring everyone else. “Shoot.”

“Do you get a fifty percent discount when you pay for your second wedding?” She asks it with a straight face and Nick narrows his eyes.

Alyssa slaps her lightly. “Be nice,” she says but she’s also smiling and Emma smirks proudly at herself.

“Ha ha ha,” Nick says unamused.

“I have a question too,” Kevin says. “Do I get to be the best man this time?” His excited smile drops from his face when he turns sharply to look at Emma with wide eyes. “I’m sorry, Emma. I know I promised I’d be yours, but, like, Nick is getting married first. Again. And you know…” He trails off with a shrug.

Emma opens and closes her mouth a few times trying to come up with an answer. “I… I never even asked you?” She says finally but Kevin has already turned back to Nick with another nonsensical question.

“Hey.” Alyssa nudges Emma with a shoulder. “I’m getting a coffee; do you want something?”

Nick, Kevin, and Shelby are loudly discussing something but Emma tunes them out in favor of focusing on Alyssa instead. "Just some tea? Is past six already; I'm cutting myself off."

Alyssa snorts a laugh, “look at you turning into your grandmother already.”

Emma doesn’t miss a beat. “She’s supposed to call me later tonight. I’ll tell her that you said she’s an old lady that only drinks tea.” Alyssa narrows her eyes but this time Emma is able to catch her hand before she can slap her again.

“I didn’t even say that.”

Emma shrugs, smiling sweetly at Alyssa and lacing their fingers together automatically. “You can buy my silence if you want. I accept lasagnas as currency.”

Alyssa huffs, “you’re incorrigible. You know that?” Emma simply shrugs again, still smiling and Alyssa rolls her eyes good-naturedly. “I think I have everything I need for a lasagna back at home, actually.”

“Good.”

“I’ll make one just for you when you finally convince Betsy to give me her Hoosier pie recipe.”

Emma groans as Alyssa smiles lazily at her and if it makes butterflies suddenly appear on Emma’s stomach, that is nothing new.

It only takes Alyssa a couple of minutes to come back with their drinks. She passes Emma a mug before sitting down next to her once again and wrapping her free arm around Emma’s neck.

Emma looks around at her friends as she waits for her tea to cool down a bit; Nick is now nodding along as Kevin babbles on about his best man speech while Kaylee and Shelby have a whispered conversation that involves a lot of hand gestures.

Life is kind of funny, Emma thinks. Years ago, back when she was still in high school, she had a grand total of zero friends. Sure, she had acquaintances, people she could ask for a pencil or pair up with when there were group projects; there were even some people on the band that she could sit with during lunch, but she never had any close friends.

She did have Betsy, though; the one person in the whole world she knew she could trust with anything, any secret. But she was her grandma, not someone close to Emma’s age and as much as Emma loves her, it didn’t really count.

Moving to New York for college, she had hoped it would be better than high school, she just didn’t anticipate how different it would be and how many people she would meet and how some of them could literally change her life. They were all so different that it was sort of amazing how they ended up all together in one big group. It was nice, even if Emma didn’t understand how it happened, like a sort of mismatched, weird family that somehow managed to make it work.

* * *

Shelby and Alyssa’s apartment is mostly dark when Emma walks in without knocking, though she can hear the sound of the TV on as she makes a beeline to the fridge so she knows someone is home.

“Hey, Alyssa?” Emma calls out, already looking through the fridge’s contents. “Do you have any eggs? Kevin thinks he can bake a cake but we don’t have eggs. Or flour.”

“Flour’s in the pantry.” Alyssa’s voice comes from somewhere in the living room but all Emma sees when she looks in that direction is the back of the couch and the faint light of the TV. Emma waits for Alyssa to say something else and furrows her brows when she doesn’t.

Alyssa is ungracefully sprawled over the couch when Emma finds her; she looks down at her for a moment before pulling on Alyssa’s legs to make space for herself to sit down too. “Alright, tell me what’s wrong.”

Alyssa avoids Emma's eyes as she sits upright. "Why do you think there's something wrong?"

“Well, for one it’s six in the afternoon and you’re crying while watching Star Wars.”

Alyssa scoffs. “I’m not crying.”

"No, you're not," Emma concedes. "But then I also said that Kevin wants to bake a cake and you didn't even try to tell me what to do when he inevitably sets our apartment on fire," Emma smirks when she sees Alyssa rolling her eyes. "Seriously, what's wrong?"

Alyssa sighs, wiggling on the couch until she’s close enough to rest her head on Emma’s shoulder. “I just had a bad day today, that’s all.”

“Okay,” Emma says wrapping an arm around Alyssa and placing a kiss on the top of her head. “Tell me about it.”

“It’s stupid,” Alyssa mumbles.

Emma pulls away just a little so she can properly look at Alyssa, one of her eyebrows raised playfully. “Might be, but if you don’t tell me, then how can I fix it?” 

Alyssa’s lips tug up slightly and Emma grins.

“There you’re are,” she says lightly poking the dimple on Alyssa’s cheek; it makes her small smile turn into a real one just like Emma knew it would.

Alyssa sighs after a moment. “A guy at work said something about me being too intense or something.” The smile slips from her face and she looks down, away from Emma’s eyes and absentmindedly lifts a hand to fiddle with Emma’s fingers on her shoulder. “He said that maybe I needed to calm down and be less uptight and it got me thinking…”

Emma frowns. “What?”

“What if it's true? Is that why none of my relationships ever lasts?”

Emma hums, turning her hand on Alyssa's shoulder so she can lace their fingers together.

“Well, first I need you to remember that you’re the one that broke up with your last girlfriend,” Emma says. Alyssa opens her mouth to say something but Emma keeps going before she can. “_You _broke up with her because you two wanted different things; you told me that.”

“Yeah, but what about everything else? What my coworker said and then what my mom said the other day. What if they’re right? What if no one else falls in love with me ever again because I always come off as too intense and-”

“That’s bullshit and you know it,” Emma cuts Alyssa off in a gentle but firm voice; she doesn’t like it when Alyssa sounds like this, so small and insecure.

“What if it’s not?” Alyssa asks defiantly.

Emma puffs her cheeks, thinking over what she wants to say.

“I don’t know about you being too intense,” she starts softly. “The Alyssa Greene I know is simply someone that knows what she wants; she goes for it and she gets it. Because she’s awesome like that. That’s not a character flaw, you know? And if someone says otherwise just point me in their direction so I can punch them in the face.”

That makes Alyssa huff a laugh; out of all of them, Emma was the one incapable of ever hurting a fly.

Emma rolls her eyes good-naturedly. “Fine, I would just have a few choice words with them; I could easily make them cry.”

“Emma,” Alyssa sighs.

“I’m not done yet.” Emma raises an eyebrow but Alyssa doesn’t try to say anything else. “You shouldn’t feel like you have to change anything about yourself to please anyone,” Emma says, using her free hand to lift Alyssa’s chin up so they’re looking at each other. “Alyssa, you’re incredible and one of my favorite people in the whole world. You’re smart and funny and the most beautiful woman I’ve ever met in real life; any girl that isn’t in love with you is just in denial.”

Alyssa stares into Emma's eye as her words slowly sink in; she knows she's blushing but that's not what is causing warmth to spread all over herself. Her heart is beating a little too fast and for a moment everything is suspended in time and there are only her and Emma and Emma's words.

“You really think all that?” Alyssa asks in a whisper, leaning forward slightly without meaning to.

“I do,” Emma says just as softly but in a way that leaves no room for doubt.

Alyssa is still gazing into Emma’s eyes when she lets go of her hand, slowly wrapping both arms around Emma’s neck. Emma hugs her back just as tightly.

“Thank you, Em,” Alyssa murmurs, burying her face on the curve of Emma’s neck.

“Anytime.”

Alyssa’s smile is hidden on Emma’s skin. It's warm and safe where she is, inside Emma’s arms; it's the most comfortable Alyssa has felt all day and she feels as if she’d like to stay right there for a while.

* * *

The door to Alyssa’s apartment opens right as Emma is about to open it herself and she takes a small startled step back while one by one, all of her friends walks out, grimacing and hastily shrugging on their coats.

Shelby is the first one to spot Emma on the hallway and her face lights up immediately.

“Emma!” She says with a bright smile, clapping her hands together. “Look who’s here, guys. It’s Emma.”

The wall is on the way when Emma tries to take another step back and Shelby is quick to close the space between them and invade Emma’s personal space, grabbing her by the shoulders before she can escape.

“We’re so glad you’re here, Emma,” she says sickly sweet in a way Emma knows it’s completely fake.

“And why is that?” Emma asks dryly.

“Well, you see, Alyssa was just inviting us to go to that new bistro with her. You know the one? But _unfortunately_, all of us have plans already.” Shelby pouts. “But now that you’re here you can go with her, right, Em?”

Emma looks away from Shelby to find Alyssa standing on the doorway to her apartment and gazing pleadingly at Emma; her eyes wander over to the rest of their friends crowding the hallway and nodding enthusiastically to Shelby’s words.

She crosses her arm defensively. Emma _knows _this is a trap, but she’s unsure how. “And where are you all going?”

"Date night with Melissa," Nick says at the same time Shelby says "the movies," and Kevin says "the zoo."

Emma narrows her eyes as Kaylee forces a laugh.

"Yeah, Nick has a date, and the rest of us is going to the movies. We're watching a movie about…" She trails off, looking at Shelby for support who simply nods her head. “About… a lion!” Her eyes light up then. “That’s it! We’re watching the Lion King. That’s what Kevin meant; you know how Kevin is.”

“Right,” Emma scoffs.

Kaylee raises an eyebrow, looking at Emma and daring her to question her story. Emma rolls her eyes but doesn't say anything else.

“Right. We’re gonna go watch… that, now,” Shelby says grabbing one of Kaylee’s hands on her own. “You’ll go with Alyssa, right?”

Emma looks back to Alyssa who is still staring at her with puppy eyes and she represses a sigh. It’s never easy to say no to Alyssa, but it’s downright impossible to even consider it when she’s looking at Emma like that.

Even if Emma doesn’t know what the catch is yet.

"I guess I could go?" She says to Alyssa, still a little uncertain. When she then turns back to the others Shelby gives her a thumbs-up and a beaming smile.

“Great!” Kaylee says loudly, already pulling Shelby in the direction of the stairs by their joined hands. “You go do that and we’ll leave. Good luck, bye.”

Nick hurriedly follows them.

“Yeah, good luck, dude,” Kevin throws over his shoulder with a grimace before he, too, disappears down the stairs.

"You already said yes; you can back off now." Alyssa's puppy eyes are gone already, instead, she looks at Emma with a fake innocent smile that is just a bit impish.

“Uh… why would I want to back off?” Emma asks, looking furtively in the direction of the stairs and wondering if it’s too late to run away.

“They may have forgotten to mention that we’re having dinner with my mom?” Alyssa says it slowly, grabbing one of Emma’s hands and immediately trying to tug her into the apartment.

Emma groans but doesn’t budge. “Very nice of you guys to warn me!” She says loudly in the direction of the stairs. 

Shelby’s distinctive laughter coming from somewhere downstairs is the only answer she gets.

Emma draws in a deep breath, closing her eyes for a moment before grudgingly allowing herself to be pulled inside.

“It’s gonna be fine,” Alyssa says in what is supposed to be a reassuring voice.

Emma is not reassured; meeting Veronica Greene is always an anxiety-inducing event that she's absolutely not prepared for.

“We can just tell her we’re getting married. That will surely shock her into silence,” Alyssa jokes but instead of laughing Emma’s frown deepens, even if the words send a pleasant shock down her spine.

“Or maybe she’ll just murder me on the spot.”

“Well,” Alyssa pauses, turning to Emma and fixing the collar of her shirt with her free hand. “There’s always that possibility too.”

* * *

“…you believed in me and you’re still believing and that’s all I could ever ask. I don’t take any moment I get to spend with you for granted and I promise I’ll be there as long as you’ll have me. Melissa, I can’t wait to begin the rest of our lives together.”

Melissa is looking at Nick with stars in her eyes as he finishes his speech, his eyes on her the whole time as if there were only the two of them in the room.

Kevin looks like he’s tearing up where he’s standing a little off to the side, though it doesn’t take too long until one of Melissa’s friends is there beside him and hugging him in support. Emma rolls her eyes.

As everyone applauds, Emma scans the room until she can see where Kaylee and Shelby are; their arms are wrapped around each other while Kaylee grins and Emma finally allows herself to smile too.

If Emma's being honest, she really was a little scared that this night would turn into a disaster, but as Melissa's dad stands up to say a few words, Emma is oddly proud of her friends. Nick and Kaylee had such a long, complicated story together that it still amazed her how they managed to stay friends in spite of everything that went wrong with their shared past.

“I loved what Nick said,” Alyssa whispers as she stops next to Emma, pulling her from her thoughts. “I didn’t know he had it in him.”

Emma hums, wrapping an arm around Alyssa. “Is it odd that I’m proud of him?”

Alyssa leans on Emma, trusting she’ll hold her. “Weirdly, so am I.”

“They grow up so fast,” Emma says, faking a sniff. It makes Alyssa chuckle, though she quickly tries to cover it up with a cough when a few people closer to them glares at her; Melissa’s dad is still speaking.

Alyssa leans her shoulder against the wall on the hotel hallway, watching with a lazy smile as Emma searches for the keys to her room.

Shelby and Kaylee had been one of the firsts to disappear when the party started to dwindle down; Alyssa had texted them before she and Emma left the reception too and was assured that they were safe and sound in their own room. Kevin and Melissa's friend, whom Emma didn't know the name but knew was one of the bridesmaids, were seen leaving together, so Alyssa hadn't been too worried about his whereabouts.

“I don’t think I had this much fun in a while,” Alyssa says with a grin when Emma finally manages to unlock the door, following her inside even if her own room was right next door. “I’m happy for Nick.”

Emma nods her agreement, smiling too as she abandons her suit jacket on a chair, loosens her tie and immediately falls down on the bed with a dramatic grunt. “He’s come a long way.”

“I think we were a good influence on him.” Alyssa kicks off her high heels as she grabs a bottle of water from the minibar before making her way to the bed and sitting down much more gracefully next to Emma.

Emma snorts a laugh. “Now that’s a funny thought.”

“Can you believe that, out of all of us, Nick is the first one to get married?” Alyssa asks after a moment, looking pensive.

Emma sits up, playfully knocking her shoulder against Alyssa’s. “To be fair, this is the guy’s second wedding and he’s only twenty-five. Maybe he is trying to break some kind of record or something.”

Alyssa giggles adorably at the joke and Emma watches her face with an amused smile.

When she manages to get her giggling under control, Alyssa lets out a sigh as she looks back at Emma with a dreamy smile. “I think I wanna get married too.”

Emma raises an eyebrow. "You're Alyssa Greene, if you really want to, I'm pretty sure there's a line of girls outdoor just waiting to get down on one knee and…" She trails off as Alyssa slowly leans close and closer until there's almost no space between their faces.

"What are you doing?" Emma asks in a whisper. She thinks Alyssa's eyes may have flickered down to her lips for a moment there, but she's sure that she'd imagined it. This is Alyssa, no way that-

And then Alyssa’s lips are on hers and Emma forgets how to think.

Emma’s eyes flutter closed as one of Alyssa’s hands cups her cheek and she instinctively kisses her back. Alyssa tastes like chocolate cake and champagne and it takes a few seconds until Emma’s brain finally kick starts and then she’s suddenly aware of exactly who she is kissing.

Alyssa.

Her best friend _Alyssa_.

Emma’s eyes shot open as she breaks the kiss abruptly, one hand on Alyssa’s chest pushing her back to put some distance between them.

“Did- did you just kiss me?” She stammers after a few seconds of the two of them staring at each other.

Alyssa simply nods, her eyes fixed on Emma’s lips. They’re still too close.

“Um, just how drunk are you?”

“Not too drunk that I don’t know what I’m doing,” Alyssa says with a shrug. “Honestly,” her eyes find Emma’s to show how serious she is, “I barely had anything to drink.”

Emma frowns. “Then why did you do it?”

“Because you were talking and your lips looked soft and I wanted to.” She makes it sound like it’s the simplest thing in the world. Maybe it is.

Before Emma can figure out what to say, Alyssa is already grabbing the hand still on her chest and lacing their fingers together as she leans closer again. Emma doesn’t try to stop her this time.

“Are _you _drunk?”

Emma shakes her head.

Alyssa smiles. “Can I kiss you again?”

It takes a second for Emma to register what Alyssa has just asked. A small part of her thinks that maybe this isn’t such a great idea, but before she can process that thought she’s already burying her free hand on Alyssa’s hair and pulling her into another kiss.

Alyssa’s hand comes up to cup Emma’s cheek again; Emma’s lips are warm and just as soft as she thought they’d be and Alyssa can’t help but want more. For a brief moment, it crosses her mind that maybe kissing her best friend shouldn’t feel this good but then Emma is changing the angle and kissing her a little harder and her mind becomes blissfully blank.

Emma whines at the loss when Alyssa pulls back; they’re both a little breathless but Alyssa wastes no time as she tilts her head to kiss down Emma’s neck. She softly bites down on Emma’s pulse point before sucking hard on the same spot until Emma is a whimpering mess.

Emma’s free hand is tightly gripping Alyssa’s waist and it makes her feel lightheaded as she keeps pressing down open-mouthed kisses and small bites on every bit of skin she can find. The hand that was on her hair just a second ago is suddenly on Alyssa’s knee, slowly bunching up her dress, though Emma stops when her hand is high on the back of Alyssa’s thigh.

"Are we- are we really doing this?" Emma words sound chopped when she asks it, her breath ragged as she stares at Alyssa with wide dark eyes. Alyssa pulls away from Emma's neck to suck on her bottom lip instead.

“Do you want to stop?” She asks on Emma’s lips, barely pulling back.

“Fuck,” Emma says before her hand leaves Alyssa’s waist to push on her shoulder until Alyssa is falling backwards on the bed and Emma is settling herself on top of her. Emma’s thigh finds its way between Alyssa’s and she presses down purposefully. Alyssa screws her eyes shut, arching her back as a desperate whimper leaves her lips.

One of Emma’s hands is on the mattress to support her weight above Alyssa while the other trails down her thigh, hooking under Alyssa’s knee to wrap it around her own waist.

Alyssa fists one hand on the short hairs at the back of Emma’s neck, dragging her into another hard kiss. “Don’t stop,” she pants against Emma’s lips when she rolls her hips down and presses against Alyssa just right.

"Wasn't on planning on that," Emma says peppering open-mouthed kisses down the column of Alyssa's neck.

“Fuck,” Alyssa whispers to no one in particular as she stares at the ceiling of the hotel room and waits for her breath to calm down a little. Next to her, Emma is breathing just as hard.

“Holy shit," Emma murmurs and Alyssa turns to look at her just in time to watch Emma biting down on her bottom lip; she resists the urge to go and bite it herself. “Never done that you with you before,” Emma quips.

“Nope.”

They stay in silence for a moment and Alyssa’s eyes wander back up to the ceiling so she can avoid looking at Emma and picturing her very naked body under the sheets. She tries to use the time to make her breath slow down instead.

“Now I know why your ex stalked you when you broke up with her,” Alyssa says amusedly after a while.

“Huh?”

“I would, too. Now that I know what you can do with your-”

“Let’s not talk about my crazy ex right now,” Emma says high pitched, the tips of her ears reddening.

_What a dork._

Alyssa squashes down the part of herself that thinks it’s cute. She just had sex with Emma, - surprisingly amazing sex – the last thing she needs is to be thinking how adorable she is. Alyssa can admit that she’s hot though.

When Alyssa rolls on her side to face her, Emma is already staring at Alyssa; the look in her eyes makes Alyssa smirk as her thoughts are pulled in another direction.

“What would you like to talk about then?” Alyssa asks trying to look innocent as if her hand weren’t already back on Emma’s thigh and squeezing it lightly.

“You know what,” Emma chokes out, “let’s not talk about anything.”

Alyssa hums, “best idea you had all day.”

“How about when I-”

The rest of Emma's sentence is suddenly not important anymore as Alyssa pulls her into another kiss.

* * *

Alyssa walks into Emma’s apartment and feigns surprise when she sees her there, sitting at the counter and staring at an apple as if it were about to tell her the answer to some very complicated math problem.

“Oh, hey, Emma. I didn’t know you were here.” That was a lie. Kevin had told Alyssa that Emma was home not 2.4 seconds ago.

“I… live here?” Emma looks up at Alyssa for a second before quickly shifting her gaze back to the apple.

Alyssa nods. “Yeah. I know that. Is just that Kevin said you were out…”

“Why would he say that?” Emma frowns, “he just saw me.”

Alyssa forces a laugh. "You know how Kevin is. Anyway, I, um, I just needed to borrow some sugar." She points to the fridge for some reason but is not like Emma notices it because she's still not looking in her direction.

Between Kevin barging into Emma’s room while Alyssa was - luckily - in the bathroom and the flight back home surrounded by strangers, Emma and Alyssa didn’t exactly have a chance to talk about what had happened the day before.

Distractedly, Alyssa pulls the door to the fridge open, looking through all the pizza boxes and leftover Chinese food. Somedays, Alyssa wonders how Emma and Kevin survive, but then she remembers how often they stay for dinner with her and Shelby and she’s reassured that at least they won’t die of malnourishment.

Emma clears her throat after a few moments of awkward silence. “So, erm, how are you?” She chances a look at Alyssa and then immediately takes her glasses off, trying to clean it with the hem of her t-shirt.

The movement pulls the fabric down slightly and Alyssa catches sight of a hickey on Emma’s collarbone; she’s the one averting her eyes this time. “I’m fine. Good. I’m good, yeah.” A beat. “How are- how are you?”

Emma looks uncertain. “I’m good too?”

Alyssa nods a few times in quick succession until she catches on what she’s doing and stops. “Cool cool cool.”

There’s another moment of awkward silence when they neither speak nor look at each other and Alyssa considers running out the door. Maybe Emma won’t notice.

She turns her back to Emma and reaches for the doorknob but then immediately turns back around. “We should probably talk about what happened, right?” She asks it before she can lose her nerve.

Emma nods. “Yeah, um, we should totally do that.” She stares at Alyssa. “What did you want to talk about exactly?”

“_Emma.”_

“Right!” Emma sits up, abandoning her apple and making a weird gesture with one arm. “You want to talk about the fact that we had sex. That makes sense, ‘cause, you know, I thought that maybe you wanted to talk about the reception. It was a nice reception, right? I thought it was lovely and… Maybe I should stop talking now.”

Alyssa can't help the small smile on her lips as she grows more at ease the more Emma is, well, Emma. She takes a step closer to the counter and lowers her voice even though she knows they’re completely alone. “How could we let that happen?”

“_Seven times,” _Emma says dumbly and Alyssa resists the urge to slap her.

“It was stupid, right?”

Emma nods, forcing a laugh. “Totally crazy stupid.”

“Totally crazy stupid surprisingly good sex.”

“I mean,” Emma clears her throat. “It was really good.” 

Alyssa's eyes flicker down to Emma’s lips before she can stop herself. “But we probably shouldn’t do that anymore. Right?”

“Totally. Yes.” Emma nods twice then shakes her head. “I meant no, as in we really shouldn’t.”

“’Cause we’re friends. We’ve known each other since we were like, nineteen. And we’re twenty-five now. So that’s… a lot of years that we’ve been friends?”

“And we wouldn’t want to ruin that.”

“Absolutely not,” Alyssa shakes her head but her eyes are already on Emma’s lips again as she leans a bit over the counter that’s separating them. “But like, would it be bad if we wanted to… again? Just one last time.”

Emma stands up. “Just one last time.”

Alyssa’s eyes lock on Emma’s as she finally steps around the counter until there’s only a small gap between their bodies. “And tomorrow we can forget this happened and go back to being just friends that don’t know what the other looks like naked.”

“I like how you think.” Emma nods, her hands twitching on her sides as she stops herself from reaching for Alyssa.

There’s a moment when neither of them does anything and then the next second Emma is being backed against the counter, Alyssa’s hand grasping her hips as she kisses her thoroughly.

Emma’s hands are quick to find the hem of Alyssa’s top and slip under the fabric; one hand going to the small of her back to pull her closer while the other is already feeling up Alyssa.

“Bedroom,” Emma mumbles on Alyssa’s lips.

Alyssa hums, grabbing Emma’s wrist to pull it from under her shirt and tugging her in the direction of Emma’s room.

* * *

Okay, so, maybe that wasn’t the last time.


End file.
